Balloons, Hydraulic Machines and Steam Engines at War and Peace: Jean-Pierre Campmas, a Visionary or an Inefficient Inventor?

Bret, Patrice

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2627-7_21

Patrice Bret²

Part of the book series: Archimedes ((ARIM,volume 30))

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Abstract

Charles Gillispie’s major contribution to “science and polity in France” carefully analyses the links between science and the modern state in the last decades of the eighteenth century and the first of the nineteenth. Beside outstanding scientists and administrators, he considers several second rank scientists, engineers or inventors who also contributed to modernity, as well as charlatans and others who challenged scientific institutions. In his thorough investigation through the national, scientific and military archives in Paris and Vincennes, Gillispie might have come across Jean-Pierre Campmas, an inventor who was not directly relevant for his investigations. He was nevertheless involved in many of the same areas as Gillispie’s protagonists, including ballooning, artillery and other matters that he submitted to French scientific and administrative institutions from the beginning of Louis XVI’s reign to the early Napoleonic period.

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Notes

1.
Mainly regarding his 1784 balloons (Julien Turgan, Les ballons, Paris, Plon, 1851, p. 178; Michael R. Lynn, Popular Science & public opinion in eighteenth-century France, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2006, p. 133; Marie Thébaud-Sorger, L’Aérostation au temps des Lumières, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2009, p. 89) and their later military development (P. Bret, “Napoléon et les technologies militaires nouvelles: essai d’analyse à partir des exemples de l’aérostation et de la fusée de guerre”, Revue de l’Institut Napoléon, n° 148 (1987), 46–60: 49, 54, 58, 59). Also: other military inventions during the Revolution (André Duvignac, Histoire de l’armée motorisée, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1947, pp. 17–19; P. Bret, L’État, l’armée, la science. L’invention de la recherche publique en France, 1763–1830, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes (coll. Carnot), 2002, 124, 126, 127). Strangely enough, the most cited proposal is his unique joint monumental building project in 1801 (Jean Davallon, Claquemurer, pour ainsi dire, tout l’univers: la mise en exposition, Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1996, p. 64; Dominique Poulot, Surveiller et s’instruire: la Révolution française et l’intelligence de l’héritage historique, Oxford, Voltaire Foundation, 1996, p. 26, and Une histoire du patrimoine en Occident, XVIII ^e -XX ^e siècle, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 2006, pp. 35–36).
2.
Besides the numerous manuscript sources referred hereafter in the footnotes, we must also cite a file about Campmas which is among those of inventors at the National Archives (AN), which contains material about his “mobile suitable for a great number of hydraulic machines” (AN, F¹⁴ 3187) and another about his inventions of 1796 to 1802 (F¹² 2325). Unfortunately, I have not been able to see it.
3.
Even his name has been wrongly read and written, then printed, as “Campenas”, “Campinas”, “Campmar” and even “Champmas” or “Canas”, and his first name turned into Jean-René.
4.
A fountain maker (fontainier) at Revel, Pierre Campmas, helped Pierre-Paul Riquet to provide the Canal du Midi with water from the Black Mountain (Montagne noire) in the 1670s. The physician of the Countess of Artois, Jean-François Campmas, born in Monestiès (Tarn), formerly demonstrator of physics at Montauban, and author of reflexions on childbirth, was sent to the États généraux in 1789, but La France Littéraire (since 1784, p. 199) wrongly attributed to him a “Machine for rising water with a rope” invented by J.-P. Campmas.
5.
P.J.L. Campmas – also known for his translation of Scipione Breislak’s Institutions géologiques, from Italian, in 1819 – was born at Blaye (Tarn) and Jean-Pierre was the name of both grandfather, a notary at Carmaux – let us notice that the inventor’s signature was followed by a complex flourish very similar to the notary’s ones – and his uncle, a priest (E. Appolis, “Un conventionnel régicide” Revue du Tarn, 1943–1944, p. 142).
6.
Especially vol. I, Chapter VI, Industry and Invention, pp. 388–478, and vol. II, Chap. VI, Scientists at War, pp. 339–444.
7.
Liliane Hilaire-Pérez has given an outstanding analyze of the strategies of inventors in her comparative approach with Britain (Inventions et inventeurs en France et en Angleterre au XVIII ^e siècle, Ph.D., Université Paris I/Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1994, 4 vols.; L’invention technique au siècle des Lumières, Paris, Albin Michel, 2000). See also Roger Hahn, The Anatomy of a scientific Institution: the Paris Academy of Sciences, 1666–1803. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971, for the competition with the Academy. Thébaud-Sorger, L’Aérostation…, op. cit.; Catherine Lanoë, La poudre et le fard. Une histoire des cosmétiques de la Renaissance aux Lumières, Seyssel, Champ Vallon, 2008; Christiane Demeulenaere-Douyère, “Entre obscurité individuelle et gloire collective? Une société d’inventeurs sous la Révolution”, in Patrice Bret, Hélène Gispert, Gérard Pajonk eds., Savants et ingénieurs entre la gloire et l’oubli. Figures du progrès, imaginaires sociaux et construction historique de catégories culturelles, Paris, Éditions du CTHS, in press.
8.
Archives of the Academy of Sciences, Paris (AAdS), “pochettes de séance” (pochette) March 12 and Apr. 23, 1774; “Procès-verbaux de l’Académie des sciences”, mss. (PVAS) 1774, f° 98 and 137v–138v.
9.
His memoirs and plans presented at the Academy in 1782 (AAdS, pochette Dec. 7, 1782) are signed at Paris (April and July 1774 and again from April 1781 onwards), and meanwhile at Bordeaux (Oct. 1776, March 1778) and in various neighbouring places: castles of La Fite-en-Médoc (Apr. 1775), of Granet entre-deux-mers (Oct. 1776), of Saint-George-en-Pui (Oct. 1777), of Citran-en-Médoc (May to Sept. 1779).
10.
Ibid.
11.
AAdS, pochette, May 8; PVAS 1782 f° 32, 37v and 82.
12.
AAdS, pochette, May 8; PVAS 1782 f° 76 and 1783, f° 70. See Matthias Thomas-Hercent, “Les innovations du cabestan dans la France des Lumières”, Master thesis, University François Rabelais, Tours (Pascal Brioist supervisor, Centre des études supérieures de la Renaissance), 1999, 185 p.
13.
AAdS, pochette, May 8; PVAS 1782 f° 76 and 1783, f° 70.
14.
AAdS, PVAS 1786, f° 146v–147v.
15.
AAdS, pochettes: n° 223 (January 18) was a “parcel” concerning four new hydraulic machines, including a permanent fountain and a pump without piston; n° 224 (January 22) contained a “very small discover, detailed with nine figures and explanations” about “new permanent pens” (i.e. metallic and fountain pens) – Campmas asked for its opening and resealed in on July 24, 1797; and n° 232 (December 13) had “useful discoveries detailed with six figures”, dealing with air navigation. There is some doubt about n° 222, which is mixed in n° 181, but another invention by Bonnemain is registered under this number (Plis cachetés, “Liste des dépots faits à la cidevant Académie des Sciences depuis l’année 1776 jusqu’en l’année 1792”).
16.
See Mathilde Lardit, “Les concours de l'Académie royale des sciences”, Master thesis, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne (Daniel Roche supervisor), 1997, pp. 116–117.
17.
See Hilaire-Perez, L’invention technique, op. cit.
18.
AN, O¹ 1294, #12–14. Quoted by Liliane Hilaire-Pérez, Inventions et inventeurs en France et en Angleterre au XVIII ^e siècle, Ph.D., Université Paris I/Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1994, vol. I, p. 63.
19.
François-Henri d’Harcourt (1726–1802), count of Lillebonne, 5th duke of Harcourt (1783). Let us notice that the three people involved in the alleged 1786 assessment were no longer able to testify in 1800: Meusnier was killed at the siege of Mayence in 1793, Borda died in 1799 and the Duke of Harcourt was still in emigration, as the representative of Louis XVIII to the British government.
20.
Procès verbaux de l’Académie des sciences, printed (PVAS) II, Germinal 26, Year 8, pp. 142–143.
21.
Anne Emmanuel François Georges de Crussol, Count d’Amboise (1726–1794) had also a military command in Normandy in 1789, when he was elected to the Etats généraux. He was beheaded on July 26, 1794 – one day before Thermidor 9.
22.
Journal de Paris, June 19, 1782, p. 689. La Machine à élever l’eau par une corde sans fin, perfectionnée par M. Campmas, Ingénieur-Hydraulique is the print wrongly attributed to the physician J.-F. Campmas after La France littéraire.
23.
See also Encyclopédie méthodique. Arts et métiers mécaniques, Paris, Panckoucke; Liège, Plomteux, vol. III, 1784, pp. 688–690.
24.
Dissertation sur le moyen d’élever l’eau par la rotation d’une corde verticale sans fin, Amsterdam, 1782 (not seen).
25.
Campmas lived at the Hôtel St-Louis, rue Gît le Cœur, at least from December 1781 up to May 1787.
26.
Oct. 2, 1781, vol. 2, p. 1109.
27.
Respectively Dec. (second fortnight), pp. 78–81 and vol. 8, part 3, Dec. 15, pp. 516–519.
28.
1782, p. 4.
29.
Letter to the Journal de Paris, June 19, 1782, p. 689, Journal politique, ou Gazette des gazettes, Aug. (first fortnight), 1782, p. 90.
30.
“Réflexions de M. Campmas, Ingénieur-hydraulique, sur les désastres de la Calabre & de Messine”, 1783, vol. 3, pp. 7–12.
31.
For example, Dec. 28, 1782, n° 52, p. 184; March 22, 1783, p. 238.
32.
La France littéraire, 1779, p. 589.
33.
Plan général des finances, nouvelles fabriques monétaires, moulins nationaux et greniers d’abondance d’un nouveau genre, présenté au Conseil législatif des Cinq Cens, par le citoyen Jean-Pierre Campmas… 4 brumaire an IV [Oct. 26, 1795], Paris, n.d., 4p., in 4° (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (BnF), Rp 13446). The proposal to the newly elected legislative assembly was made the last day of the National Convention.
34.
Lettre du Cit. Campmas, ingénieur en hydraulique, sur son projet de deux grands Etablissemens pour la ville de Paris, divisés en six objets d’utilité majeure; au rédacteur du Moniteur universel. Paris, le 20 nivôse an VIII [Jan. 10, 1800]. Paris, impr. de H. Agasse, n.d., in 8°, 13 p. (BnF, Vp 13079).
35.
Hilaire-Pérez, L’invention technique…, op. cit., pp. 281–282, 295; Denis Woronoff, L'industrie sidérurgique en France pendant la Révolution et l'Empire. Paris: EHESS, 1984, p. 352; Charles Ballot, L'introduction du machinisme dans l'industrie française (Paris, 1923). Reprint, Geneva: Slatkine, 1978.
36.
Archives du Musée national des arts et métiers, Paris, 10–544 #105. The experts named by the Bureau de consultation on May 9, 1792 were not members of the Academy, but representative of inventors societies (Lucotte, Trouville and Dumas). On August 25, Campmas only received 950£ after the legal tax of 5%, since he had already obtained 4,750£ on July 21 (AN, F⁴ 1316). See Charles Ballot, “Procès-verbaux du Bureau de Consultation des Arts et Métiers”, Bulletin d'histoire économique de la Révolution, 1913, pp. 95, 98, 140.
37.
AD Indre-et-Loire, C 143, quoted by Georges Rosenberger, “Production et usage de l’acier en France au XVIIIe siècle. Tentative de bilan”, in Philippe Dillmann, Liliane Pérez et Catherine Verna (eds.), L’acier en Europe avant Bessemer, Toulouse, CNRS/FRAMESPA, Editions Méridiennes, 2011, pp. 339–357 (p. 355).
38.
Service historique de la défense/ Département armée de terre, Vincennes (SHD/DAT), 6 W 66, dos. 6033(7), p. 3.
39.
AD Indre et Loire, C. 738.
40.
SHD/DAT, 6 W 66, dos. 6033(7), p. 3. In 1793, the steel plant was converted into blades manufacturing when Amboise was besieged by the royalist rebellion (Vendéens), but Campmas’ mills were destroyed in the Revolutionary years.
41.
He was registered after Oct. 9, 1792 (Archives du Musée national des arts et métiers, 10–932).
42.
Enclos de la Raison (alias Cloître Notre-Dame), #46 until 1801 at least. Previously : Hôtel de Provence, rue St-André des arts (May 1792), Caffé de Conty, descente du Pont neuf (October 1792).
43.
Archives du Musée national des arts et métiers 10–544 #290. At that time (Ventose 20, Year 3/March 10, 1795), Campmas asked the Provisional Commission of Arts to seek in Condorcet’s papers so as to find out three of the memoirs he had presented to the formerAcademy (Louis Tuetey, Procès-verbaux de la Commission temporaire des arts. Vol. II, Paris, 1917, p. 167).
44.
Convention nationale, Rapport de Prony et Molard sur les projets présentés au comité des domaines et aliénation, pour remplacer la machine de Marly. Imprimé par ordre de la Convention nationale…, Paris, Impr. nationale, Du 15 vendémiaire, l’an III de la République [Oct. 6, 1794], pp. 12–14 (description) and 17–19 (comments).
45.
PVAS I, pp. 96 (Fructidor 26, Year 4/Sept. 12, 1796) and 106 (Vendémiaire 1st, Year 5/Sept. 22, 1796).
46.
AN, F¹⁷ 1240 B. Plan général des finances…, op. cit., p. 3. From April 1796, Campmas was replacing Dumas as hydraulic engineer in charge of setting up a copper rolling mill on a floating factory on the Seine River (AAdS, pochette, Vendémiaire 11, Year 5/Oct. 2, 1796).
47.
PVAS I, pp. 113 (Vendémiaire 11, Year 5/Oct. 2, 1796), 136 (Frimaire 6/Nov. 26), 150 (Nivôse 6 and 11/Dec. 26 and 31).
48.
Ibid., pp. 171 (Pluviôse 21, Year 5/Feb. 9, 1797), 172 (Pluviôse 22/Feb. 10).
49.
Ibid., pp. 241–242 (Thermidor 6 and 11, Year 5/July 24 and 29, 1797), 258 (Fructidor 1/Aug. 18).
50.
Ibid., pp. 362 (Ventôse 26, Year 6/March 16, 1798), 502 (Frimaire 21, Year 7/Dec. 11, 1798).
51.
PVAS II, pp. 20–21 (Brumaire 6, Year 8/Oct. 28, 1799).
52.
Ibid., p. 111 (Ventôse 6, Year 8/Feb. 25, 1800).
53.
Ibid., p. 142 (Germinal 26, Year 8/Apr. 16, 1800).
54.
Ibid., p. 143 (Germinal 26, Year 8/Apr. 16, 1800).
55.
Ibid., pp. 128–129 (Germinal 6 and 11, Year 8)
56.
Ibid., pp. 146 (Floréal 6, Year 8/Apr. 26 1800), 156 (Floréal 16/May 5), 173 (Prairial 11/May 31), 175 (Prairial 21/June 10).
57.
Ibid., p. 146 (Floréal 6, Year 8/Apr. 26, 1800).
58.
Lettre du Cit. Campmas… sur son projet de deux grands Etablissemens…, op. cit., pp. 1–2. Brullée’s letter had been published on January 1, 1800.
59.
Serge Benoît, Gérard Emptoz, Denis Woronoff (eds.), Encourager l’innovation en Europe. La Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale, Paris, Éd. du CTHS, 2006.
60.
Costaz, Baillet, Molard, Bardel and Conté belonged to the Committee. Archives of the Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale, Procès-verbaux, Pluviôse 5 and Ventôse 5, Year 10, and Campmas’ file (CME 1/1).
61.
AN, F¹² 2422. I am grateful to Marie Thébaud-Sorger, who drew my attention on this file.
62.
Brumaire 8, Year 10 (Oct. 30, 1801).
63.
Charles C. Gillispie, The Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation, 1783–1784. With a Word on the Importance of Ballooning for the Science of Heat and the Art of Building Railroads. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983. On the fashion, see James M. Hunn, Balloon Craze in France: A Study of Popular Culture, 1783–1799, PhD Vanderbildt University, microfilm, Nashville, 1982; Lynn, Popular Science…, op. cit.; Thébaud-Sorger, L’Aérostation…, op. cit.
64.
AAdS, pochette Dec. 13, 1783.
65.
Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace, Le Bourget, fonds Montgolfier, Box XXI, #24.
66.
Van Marum reported a discussion on that point, after the July 20 meeting at the Academy, between Lavoisier, who was confident in Meusnier’s work, and Laplace, who considered steering a balloon impossible (Martinus Van Marum, Journal physique de mon séjour à Paris 1785, in Martinus Van Marum. Life and Work, ed. R. J. Forbes, Haarlem, 1970, vol. II, pp. 220–239). Regarding the academic assessment, see “Lavoisier et les deux commissions académiques successives pour l'étude des aérostats”, Œuvres de Lavoisier – Correspondance. Vol. IV, Michelle Goupil, ed., Paris, Belin, 1986, pp. 293–297.
67.
Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace, Le Bourget, fonds Montgolfier, Box VI, #58. The tickets bore an engraving of the steering machine, without the balloon: “Diligence aérienne de Mr. Campmas, ingénieur et physicien./Billet pour le départ de Mr Campmas et compagnie de voyage./Se trouve à Paris chez l’auteur rue Gît-le-Cœur quay des Augustins à l’Hôtel St-Louis. 1784” (BnF, Estampes, coll. Hennin, 10018).
68.
Feb. 24, 1784, pp. 112–113; Feb. 26, 1784, pp. 117–118.
69.
March 9, p. 142; March 11, p. 149.
70.
Bienvenu and Launay did the same with their heavier than air model. See P. Bret, “Un bateleur de la science : le ‘machiniste-physicien’ François Bienvenu et la diffusion de Franklin et Lavoisier”, in Jean-Luc Chappey (ed.), “La vulgarisation des savoirs et des techniques sous la Révolution”, Annales historiques de la Révolution française, n° 338 (Oct.–Dec. 2004), pp. 95–127.
71.
AAdS, PVAS 1784, f° 148v.
72.
Respectively June (first fortnight), 1784, pp. 39–40 and June 1784, pp. 497–498.
73.
The French term contains an ethnic connotation: “gasconnade” refers to inhabitants of Gascogne, a part of Guyenne – where Campmas came from – the Gascons, whose boasting was legendary. Mémoires secrets pour servir à l’histoire de la République des lettres en France…, London, John Adamson, 1786, t. 26, .pp. 258–259.
74.
Correspondance secrète, politique et littéraire, London, John Adamson, 1789, t. 17, 177–178. On July 11, Miollan and Janinet’s balloon could not ascend and was eventually destroyed by furious – paying – spectators.
75.
David Bourgeois, Recherches sur l’art de voler, depuis la plus haute Antiquité jusqu’à ce jour, Paris, Cuchet, 1784, p. 88.
76.
AAdS, pochette, Feb. 18, 1784 (signed by Condorcet that day).
77.
Plan général des finances…, op. cit., p. 4; SHD/DAT, 1 M 1161, #26 (Ventôse 14, Year 6/March 4, 1798); 6 W 66, dos. 6033(8), p. 3.
78.
Plan général des finances…, op. cit., p. 4.
79.
SHD/DAT, 1 M 1161, #23 (Pluviôse 27, Year 6/Feb. 15, 1798), #26 (Ventôse 14, Year 6/March 4, 1798).
80.
Jean Mascart, La vie et les travaux du chevalier Jean-Charles de Borda (1733–1799). Épisodes de la vie scientifique au XVIII ^e siècle (1919), 2nd ed. Paris, Presses de l'université de Paris-Sorbonne (Bibliothèque de la revue d’histoire maritime), 2000.
81.
SHD/DAT, 1 M 1161, #23 (Pluviôse 27, Year 6/Feb. 15, 1798).
82.
Ibid. and #26 (Ventôse 14, Year 6/March 4, 1798).
83.
Public auction, Collection Chavaillon, #324, December 2–3, 2005, Bordeaux. I had seen only the first and last pages of this document.
84.
In addition to Gillispie, Science and Polity in France at the End of the Old Regime. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1980, pp. 305–306, see Olivier Coquard, Jean-Paul Marat. Paris, Fayard, 1993; Jean Bernard, Jean-François Lemaire, Jean-Pierre Poirier eds., Marat homme de science?, Paris, Les Empêcheurs de tourner en rond, 1993, that includes an « Intervention du professeur Charles C. Gillispie », pp. 151–157.
85.
SHD/DAT, 1 M 1161, #26 (Ventôse 14, Year 6/March 4, 1798).
86.
SHD/DAT, 1 M 1161, #24 (Ventôse 19, Year 6/March 9, 1798).
87.
SHD/DAT, Génie, register Comité central des fortifications (CCF), Pluviôse 5, Year 8/Jan. 25, 1800, f° 133.
88.
SHD/DAT, Génie, CCF, Ventôse 2, Year 8/Feb. 21, 1800, f° 165.
89.
SHD/DAT, Génie, CCF, Prairial 6, Year 8/May 26, 1800, f° 290–291.
90.
Journal encyclopédique, Dec. 15, 1781, pp. 516–519; SHD/DAT, 6 W 66, dos. 6033(8), pp 3–5.
91.
James Guillaume, Procès-verbaux du Comité d'Instruction publique de l'Assemblée législative. Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1889, p. 281.
92.
SHD/DAT, 6 W 66, dos. 6033(7), p. 2, item 10.
93.
For the organization of assessing inventions in the military field, see Bret, L’Etat, l’armée, la science…, op. cit.
94.
SHD/DAT, 6 W 66, dos. 6033(8), p. 1.
95.
Ibid., p. 3.
96.
Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, vol. 20, Paris, Bureau central, 1841, pp. 525–526 (Floréal 30, Year II/May 19, 1794); Louis Tuetey, Procès-verbaux de la Commission temporaire des arts. Vol. I, Paris, 1912, pp. 211–212 (Prairial 15/June 3), 275 (Messidor 20/July 8).
97.
SHD/DAT, 6 W 66, dos. 6033(7).
98.
Ibid., Titre 3, p. 5 (Prairial 16, Year II/June 4, 1794); AN, AF II 220, #2 (Prairial 26/June 14).
99.
Ibid., Titre 4, pp. 5–7. The École de Mars was a revolutionary training school for soldiers.
100.
Ibid., Titre 5, pp. 8–11.
101.
Emmanuel Grison, “Les premières attaques contre l'Ecole polytechnique (1796–1799). La défense de l'École par Prieur de la Côte-d'Or et Guyton de Morveau”, Bulletin de la Société des amis de la bibliothèque de l'Ecole polytechnique (SABIX), 8 (Dec. 1991), 1–24; P. Bret, “Recherche scientifique, innovation technique et conception tactique d’une arme nouvelle: l’aérostation militaire (1793–1799)”, in Jean-Paul Charnay ed., Lazare Carnot ou le Savant-citoyen, Paris, Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1990, pp. 429–451.
102.
SHD/DAT, 6 W 66, dos. 6033(8), p. 6. The steam cart was Item 8 in August 1792 (dos. 6033(7), p. 2).
103.
SHD/DAT, 6 W 66, dos. 6033(8), p. 5.
104.
This item was developed in the above mentioned “Treatise on Ballooning” (cf. footnote 76).
105.
Ibid., pp. 3–4.
106.
Ibid., p. 6. In February 1798, Campmas gave a note on his field carriages to the National Institute, that was read and sealed on March 1 (PVAS I, p. 353).
107.
SHD/DAT, 6 W 66, dos. 6033(9), Frimaire 26, Year 5 (Dec 16, 1796). See also 6 W 65 and 6 W 75.
108.
He defended Fabre’s shells (boulets creux), and was later himself an inventor. Charles Gillispie, “Science and secret weapons development in Revolutionary France, 1792–1804: A documentary history”, Historical Studies in Physical Sciences, 23:1 (1992), 35–152; Bret, L’Etat, l’armée, la science…, op. cit., pp. 310–312, 346.
109.
Reference to Cugnot’s experiments around 1770.
110.
SHD/DAT, 6 W 66, dos. 6033(9).
111.
Lastly, on February 19, he presented a memoir on a new construction for field carriages and a new shape of gun to the president of the first class of the National Institute, that was read at the next meeting (Feb. 24), then sealed on March 1. PVAS I, 353.
112.
SHD/DAT, 6 W 66, dos. 6033(10) (Nivôse 4, Year 5/Dec. 24, 1796).
113.
SHD/DAT, 6 W 66, dos. 6033(11) (Pluviôse 13, Year 5/Feb. 1, 1797).
114.
PVAS III, pp. 29–30 (Frimaire 13, Year 12).
115.
SHD/DAT, 6 W 66, dos. 6033(8), p. 6.
116.
See Gabriel Galvez-Behar. La République des inventeurs: Propriété et organisation de l’innovation en France (1791–1922). Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2008; Christiane Demeulenaere-Douyère, “Les pétitions et le vote des lois protectrices de l’invention en 1791”, in L’individu face au pouvoir: les pétitions aux assemblées parlementaires, Revue administrative, special issue 2008, pp. 61–69; id., “Inventeurs en Révolution: la Société des inventions et découvertes”, Documents pour l’histoire des techniques, 17 (2009), pp. 19–56.
117.
Yves Cohen, « Technique et politique : une histoire réciproque (France et Union soviétique entre les deux guerres), in Artisans, industrie. Nouvelles révolutions du Moyen Âge à nos jours, eds. Natacha Coquery, Liliane Hilaire-Pérez, Line Sallmann and Catherine Verna, Lyon, ENS Editions – SFHST, 2004, 227–236 (p. 235). The anti-Bolshevik writer Jean M. Rivière prophesized that “the inoffensive tractors that serve as agricultural machines at peace can easily be transformed into gun tractors or tanks at war” (L’URSS dans le monde: l’expansion soviétique de 1918 à 1935, Paris, Payot, 1935).
118.
Gillispie, “Science and secret weapons development…”, op. cit.

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to Jed Buchwald for his careful editing and polishing my text, and to Florence Greffe, Claudine Pouret, Marie Thebaud-Sorger and Christiane Demeulenaere-Douyère for their kind help.

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Centre Alexandre Koyré – Centre de recherches en histoire des sciences et des techniques, Paris, France
Patrice Bret

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Patrice Bret
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Correspondence to Patrice Bret .

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, Div. Humanities & Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, E. California Blvd. 1200, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA
Jed Z. Buchwald

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Bret, P. (2011). Balloons, Hydraulic Machines and Steam Engines at War and Peace: Jean-Pierre Campmas, a Visionary or an Inefficient Inventor?. In: Buchwald, J. (eds) A Master of Science History. Archimedes, vol 30. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2627-7_21

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2627-7_21
Published: 08 December 2011
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-2626-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-2627-7
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)

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